For women, mothers, anyone

Was actually researching on the origins of Mother’s Day for a project when I came across this gem. According to Wikipedia and About.com, the below poem came from a woman named Julia Howe, who was devastated by the effects of war that went beyond just “the battlefields of war.” In this day and age of the war of terror, in Iraq, and other places, it would do us well to remember this poem.

In fact, just about for any war, not necessarily a physical one.

Mother’s Day Proclamation (1870)Arise then…women of this day!Arise, all women who have hearts!Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!Say firmly:“We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,For caresses and applause.Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearnAll that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.We, the women of one country,Will be too tender of those of another countryTo allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up withOur own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm!The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”Blood does not wipe our dishonor,Nor violence indicate possession.As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvilAt the summons of war,Let women now leave all that may be left of homeFor a great and earnest day of counsel.Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the meansWhereby the great human family can live in peace…Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,But of God –In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly askThat a general congress of women without limit of nationality,May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenientAnd the earliest period consistent with its objects,To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,The amicable settlement of international questions,The great and general interests of peace.